How Can I Determine How Much my Excess Skin Weighs? (photo)

Question

I had a gastric bypass Jan. 09, my highest weight was 547 pounds and I was 481 the morning of surgery. Right now I weight 190 pounds (my lowest was 180) but have an incredible amount of loose skin all over my body. I am worried about my weight getting too low without realizing it so I would like to have a resonable estimate of what the excess skin weighs in order to figure out my appropriate target weight. What is the best way to figure this out??

Lloyd Stegemann, MD, FASMBS · Answer

This is a difficult question to answer because it is highly variable. In general, when a patient has a body lift (in general the preferred procedure vs abdominoplasty) after weight loss surgery the removed skin will weigh around 5-7 lbs. If someone has a really significant amount of loose skin then the weight of the skin can be as high as 20-30 lbs! You have done REALLY well with your weight loss so it is possible that you could have a good 15 lbs of loose skin, but again it is a difficult question to answer without physically seeing someone.

How Can I Determine How Much my Excess Skin Weighs? (photo)

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